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Newsela Reading: Medieval Witch Hunts

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Last updated over 2 years ago
10 questions
Read the article from Newsela, then answer the ten questions to the right. You must do your own work! You will have a chance to remediate up to 90% if needed. This will be our first grade in Quarter 2, and is assessing two important reading SOL skills:
  • Reading: Vocabulary (4 questions)
  • Reading: Nonfiction Comprehension (6 questions)
Required
1
11.3.b
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11.5.e
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1
11.5.i
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1
11.5.e
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1
11.3.a
Required
1
11.5.i
Required
1
11.3.b
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1
11.5.e
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1
11.3.b
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1
11.5.g
Question 1
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Question 2
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Question 3
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Question 4
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Question 5
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Question 6
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Question 7
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Question 8
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Question 9
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Question 10
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Read this excerpt from the text:

"Their appearance was all the more strange because between 900 and 1400 the Christian authorities had refused to acknowledge that witches existed, let alone try someone for the crime of being one. This was despite the fact that belief in witches was common in medieval Europe, and in 1258 Pope Alexander IV had to issue a canon to prevent prosecutions."

The word "canon" can be replaced by which of the following words without changing the meaning of the text?
missile
anthology
standard
decree
What can be inferred from the following excerpt?

"The data shows that witch-hunts took off only after the Reformation in 1517, following the rapid spread of Protestantism. Leeson and Russ argue that, for the first time in history, the Reformation presented large numbers of Christians with a religious choice: stick with the old church or switch to the new one. 'And when churchgoers have religious choice, churches must compete,' they say."
The Reformation led to a decrease in witch-hunts.
Medieval Protestants were more likely to believe in witchcraft than Medieval Catholics.
The Reformation was a pivotal moment in the history of Christianity.
When medieval churchgoers had a choice in churches, they mostly chose Protestant churches.
Read the following sentence from the article. "The new analysis suggests that the witch craze was most intense where Catholic-Protestant rivalry was strongest." Which sentence from the article BEST supports this idea?
This explains why Germany, ground zero for the Reformation, laid claim to nearly 40 percent of all witchcraft prosecutions in Europe.
The phenomenon reached its zenith between 1555 and 1650, the years when there was "peak competition for Christian consumers."
This was evidenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation, during which Catholic officials pushed back against Protestant successes in converting Catholics to the new ways of worshipping throughout much of Europe.
"In contrast, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland — each of which remained a Catholic stronghold after the Reformation and never saw serious competition from Protestantism — collectively accounted for just 6 percent of Europeans tried for witchcraft," Russ observes.
How did the Catholic-Protestant rivalry affect the witch trials of early modern Europe?
The witch trials transpired at the same time as the Catholic-Protestant rivalry was developing; however, they were separate and unrelated events that both happened to occur in a similar time period.
The witch trials were slightly influenced by the Catholic-Protestant rivalry, but the witch trials were already in full swing by the time the two groups had begun quarreling so fiercely.
The witch trials were fueled by the Catholic-Protestant rivalry, and the highest number of witch trials coincided with the time that Catholic and Protestants were most intensely competing for followers.
The witch trials were not affected by the Catholic-Protestant rivalry; however, they are the primary cause of conflict between the two religions and led to the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
Read the following excerpt:

"The phenomenon reached its zenith between 1555 and 1650, the years when there was 'peak competition for Christian consumers.' This was evidenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation, during which Catholic officials pushed back against Protestant successes in converting Catholics to the new ways of worshipping throughout much of Europe."

Which of the following words could NOT replace "zenith" without altering the meaning of the text?
acme
peak
nadir
apex
Read the following paragraph from the article. "By around 1650, however, the witch frenzy began its precipitous decline, with prosecutions for witchcraft virtually vanishing by 1700. Leeson and Russ attribute this to the Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties in 1648, which brought a close to the Thirty Years' War and ended decades of religious warfare in Europe." How does this paragraph reflect the central argument of the article?
by drawing a connection between the end of the witch trials and the end of religious warfare in Europe
by highlighting the fact that witch trials have continued on despite having ended in Europe
by explaining how the witch trials did not even begin until after the Catholics and Protestants began fighting
by suggesting that there does not seem to be explanation for why the witch trials ended so suddenly
Read the following excerpt:

"By around 1650, however, the witch frenzy began its precipitous decline, with prosecutions for witchcraft virtually vanishing by 1700."

Based on the context, the best definition for "precipitous" would be:
Happening unevenly
Happening suddenly
Happening slowly or gradually
Happening in small segments
Read the following selection from the article. "But the use of terror to impress a message on the population has not abated, they suggest. 'The phenomenon we document — using public trials to advertise superior power along some dimension as a competitive strategy — is much broader than the prosecution of witches in early modern Europe,' Leeson says. 'It appears in different forms elsewhere in the world at least as far back as the ninth century, all the way up to the 20th and Stalin's show trials in the Soviet Union.'" Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the selection above?
Early modern Europe was not the only place where witch trials occurred, but those trials are the only ones that resulted in death.
Although the witch trials in early modern Europe are the most well-known, they were not nearly as grisly as the Soviet Union trials.
Other types of trials have continued to persist despite the decline of witch trials in early modern Europe.
When the number of witch trials began to decline in early modern Europe, they also decreased elsewhere.
Read the following paragraph:

"But the use of terror to impress a message on the population has not abated, they suggest. 'The phenomenon we document — using public trials to advertise superior power along some dimension as a competitive strategy — is much broader than the prosecution of witches in early modern Europe,' Leeson says. 'It appears in different forms elsewhere in the world at least as far back as the ninth century, all the way up to the 20th and Stalin's show trials in the Soviet Union.'"

The word "abated" could be replaced by which of the following without changing the meaning of the text?
changed
increased
maintained
diminished
Based on their characterization in this article, which of the following statements would Peter Leeson and Jacob Russ most likely NOT agree with?
The framework of Economics can be used to analyze many fields of study, such as history.
Economics can teach us much more than how money works.
When using Economics to study an event in history, the event must be related to money.
Economists at George Mason University are allowed to exercise some creativity in the subjects of their research.